Master Planning Communiqué Saint John the Evangelist Parish        March 18, 2004

The March 18th Parish Leadership Meeting, a gathering of all council and commission members, was the forum the Master Planning Committee used to kick off the Master Planning process for the entire parish campus and community.

George Williams, chair of the Master Planning Committee, began the meeting by welcoming everyone and thanking all the councils and commissions for their work in preparing for the meeting.  Fr. Bill opened the meeting with a prayer, and Kelley Stupfel of Guidance in Giving Inc. gave an overview of the feasibility study, and offered to answer questions.  Kelley was supportive of our decision to pursue a master plan, built around our parish mission statement, with input from all areas of the parish community, represented by our two councils and six commissions.  

Prior to attending the meeting, the master planning committee members were asked in concert with their respective council or commission, to list their Top 5 Fears and Questions about the master planning process.  A representative from each commission presented their mission statement and Top 5 fears and questions.  It was striking how similar the fears and questions were across all commissions and councils. For those interested in reviewing all missions, fears, and questions, a copy of the full PowerPoint presentation is available in the parish office.  Plus the presentation has been distributed to all council and commission members.

What the Master Planning Committee gained from the March 18^th meeting was the following:

• The meeting was considered to be a safe environment where everyone could openly discuss their fears, questions, feelings about the past, and their hopes for the master planning process going forward.  The parish leadership group will answer questions and fears about the process as we work our way through the planning stages.
• The parish leadership group will be the main conduit of communication to and from the larger parish community. (When we use the term “parish leadership” we mean every member of the parish councils and commissions.)  Each member of the parish leadership group will be a conduit for communicating concerns from the community into the master planning team, and for communicating the work of the master planning committee back to the parish.  This role of communicating back and forth will be critical to the success.  As a member of our parish community, you are strongly encouraged to engage your council and commission representatives in dialogue regarding the master planning process.  

The anticipated steps for the master planning process were reviewed.  The process will evolve based on input from the councils, commissions and parish community.  Our first step was to align all council and commission missions behind the main principles of our parish mission as described in the weekly church bulletin.  Second, we wanted to surface all the fears and questions we could about the process.  The next step will be to understand the needs of the entire parish community.  On April 28^th, the leadership group will meet again to review presentations from each council and commission regarding the needs of the parish community, in support of the parish mission.

Mike Alvine will be preparing written communications on behalf of the master planning committee going forward.  You will find these updates in the Sunday church bulletins, in NewsViews (the school news letter) and on our website http://www.stjohnsea.org .  In reality, the majority of communications will be occurring through the parish leadership.  The written material will be important in presenting a clear and candid message on the master planning progress and on what the parish leadership team believes it is hearing back from all members of the parish community, but the success of this new process will depend on all of us engaging in the planning dialog.